NEW OVERLAND ROUTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 76, 26 September 1942, Page 8

NEW OVERLAND ROUTES

FROM INDIA AND IRAN

(Rec. 1.30 p.m.)

CHUNGKING. Sept. 25. Two overland transportation routes, covering thousands of. miles, are now ready to transport American war material from India and Iran to Chungking. Transportation experts who have just returned from a survey of North-western China told the United Press this today. The first route begins at Karachi, running through Lahore and Peshawar, and thence to Alma Ata and Lanchow. The second (Iranian) route begins at Bushire and runs northward to Bandarshah on the Caspian, and thence by water to Krasnovodsk and Alma Ata. The experts said that two short-cuts were also planned, the first providing transit from Karachi to Peshawar and on to Kashgar in southern Sinkiang Province, then across the southern slope of the basin of the Tienshan Mountains to Hami and Chungking. CONSTRUCTION EASY. This requires the construction of a 500-mile highway, but will not be difficult because it runs over grasslands. It would shorten the route greatly, eliminating long stretches through Afghanistan and Russia. The second short-cut is a highway from Kashgar to Yarkand, and thence to Chengtu and Chungking, providing the safest route but requiring 1250 miles of construction work.

A Foreign Office spokesman announced that the United States was sending technical experts to China at Chungking's request to assist in the improvement of agriculture, forestry, communications, mining, and hygiene.